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Exquisite writer! I would like to read all her books. She wrote beautifully and thoughtfully. Each sentence is well-executed. She leads me through characters, plots, stories smoothly and captivatingly. What a joy to read!

One of my favourite authors!
Inspector Grant, also featured in Tey's other mystery novels, and local solicitor Robert Blair work together to determine if Mrs Sharpe and her daughter Marion have kidnapped local girl Betty. We believe their innocence then maybe we don't. There are uncertainties.
But it's not just about the story line. It's the amazing writing, the character development, the use of language.
Unfortunately Josephine Tey (Elizabeth MacKintosh) left us with just 5 mystery novels. They are all wonderful literary works to savour repeatedly.

EuSei
May 13, 2015

I enjoyed The Franchise Affair from the first to the last page; I was disappointed it ended! Very well written—unlike more modern books. In the middle of the book I was struck by the feeling that Miss Sharpe is Tey’s alter ego. No, not physically, exactly; just look at a picture of Tey and you will realize she would never live up to Marion’s mysterious beauty. Although Tey had a narrow face, just like her description of Marion’s, there the physical similarities ends. Yet, for some reason, I find Marion too much a “real human being” and wonder if Tey didn't transfer her personality to the character… Mrs. Sharpe was my favorite character, though. Her bluntness, straightforwardness reminds me a lot of someone I know quite well: myself! :-) Miss Tey's ideas on penal servitude (expressed through Robert's ruminations about lawyer Kevin McDermott's opinion) would most definitely not make her popular among the modern "learned" crowds... Anyway, this is an incredibly good, well written, well-thought book. Worth your time. I am looking forward to her other books.

Quotes

Tomes have been written trying to define the criminal, but it is a very simple definition after all. The criminal is a person who makes the satisfaction of his own immediate personal wants the mainspring of his actions. You can’t cure him of his egotism, but you can make the indulgence of it not worth his while. Or almost not worth his while.

EuSei
May 13, 2015

Kevin’s idea of prison reform, Robert remembered, was deportation to a penal colony. An island community where everyone worked hard. This was not a reform for the benefit of the prisoners.

EuSei
May 13, 2015

Nowadays, it was the untried who bore the pillory and the guilty went immediately into a safe obscurity. Something had gone wrong somewhere.